ROBERT DONAT - 18th March, 1905 – 9th June, 1958

 

Some actor’s, male and female, have such a presence when they’re on the screen that you feel an immediate empathy with them, Robert Donat had that effect on me.

He was born on March 18, 1905 in Withington, Manchester, and he suffered with the worst kind of handicap for an actor a stutter.

In order to overcome it, he began taking elocution lessons when he was eleven years of age and as a result he developed an exceptionally versatile voice.

As a result he began his stage career aged 16 appearing in a number of classical and  Shakespearean roles in repertory as well as touring companies and By 1924 he had joined Sir Frank Benson's repertory company.

He immediately gained popularity in the early Thirties after he had signed a contract with Alexander Corda particularly after he appeared in what was only his third film “The Private Life of Henry VIII” in 1933 playing Thomas Culpepper.

He followed this with “The Count of Monte Cristo” in 1934 portraying Edmond Dantes and then in my opinion he delivered the definitive Richard Hannay in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Thirty Nine Steps” in 1935.

The Thirty Nine Steps is not only one of my favorite Donat films it is also near the top of the list of my favorite Hitchcock classic’s and I can remember being enormously envious of Robert Donat being handcuffed to the lovely Madeline Carroll.

The late thirties proved to be his heyday with His two most successful films being “The Citadel” in 1938 where he starred with Rosalind Russell in which he received an Oscar nomination and the following year in “Goodbye Mr. Chips” with Greer Garson for which he was again nominated for an Oscar and this time he won it, no mean feat as he was up against “Gone With The Wind”

His career was hampered by chronic asthma and he turned down both “Robin Hood” and “Captain Blood” because of the Hollywood air aggravated his complaint.

Both parts eventually went to Errol Flynn who in acting terms wasn’t worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Donat.

He was also an insecure man plagued with self-doubt and as a result he turned down more film scripts than he accepted, rare indeed for an actor of the day.

Due to is ill health He did very few films in the 40's and 50's averaging one film every two years and his last film was in 1958 when he had a cameo role in “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” which starred Ingrid Bergman.

He was so ill at the time you could almost see him dieing before your eyes His health was failing him so fast in fact he died on June 9, 1958 a matter of days after the film was completed.

Ironically his last words in the film are "We shall not see each other again, I think."